0

As the pages in our December desk calendar fall away, 2010 is coming to a close. With the holiday season looming, Apple has yet again made their list and checked it twice; this morning, they launched iTunes Rewind 2010, wherein they highlight the best selling apps of the year.

Apple mixed things up a bit for this year’s list, doing away with the distinction between Apps and Games. Instead, apps from either category were pit against each other for the top of three separate lists: Top Free, Top Paid, and Top Grossing.

Given that the iPad didn’t officially exist last year, there was one other change made to the lists: iPhone/iPod Touch apps are ranked separately from iPad apps. It’d be a bit weird if they weren’t, right?

It’s a great bit of insight on what’s really selling on the App Store, with a few surprise hits in there (especially in the top grossing lists).

Top Free (iPhone):

Facebook

Angry Birds Lite

Words With Friends Free

Skype

Tap Tap Revenge 3

The Weather Channel

Paper Toss

Bing

Rock Band Free

Talking Tom Cat

No surprises here, really; Facebook is about as universal as applications get, and Angry Birds has been dominating the charts for months now.

Top Paid (iPhone):

Angry Birds

Doodle Jump

Skee-Ball

Bejeweled 2 + Blitz

Fruit Ninja

Cut The Rope

Gamebox 1

The Moron Test

Plants vs. Zombies

Again, no huge surprises here. Most of these things are games that ruled the roost for most of the year on the day-to-day lists, and at least half of them are games that damn near everyone has on their handsets. Note that Angry Birds was the only app to make both the Top Free and Top Paid lists.

Top Grossing (iPhone):

MLB.com At Bat 2010

Angry Birds

Call Of Duty: Zombies

Bejeweled

FriendCaller 3 Pro

Zombie Farm

TomTom U.S.A

TETRIS

Plants vs. Zombies

Doodle Jump

MLB.com ruling this list is a bit misleading at the moment, as they’ve dropped the app to free while Baseball season is over. When it’s in, the live video streams of MLB games will set you back $15.

Again, Angry Birds dominates the list — but most of the other apps from the Top Paid lists are no shows. Though it’s a “free” app, FriendCaller 3 Pro sneaks in there at #5 with its pay-per-minute In-App purchase model, while the $50 TomTom coming in at #7 app proves just how important turn-by-turn is to smartphone owners.

Top Free (iPad):

iBooks

Pandora Radio

Netflix

Google Mobile App

Solitaire

Movies by Flixster

IMDb Movies & TV

Kindle

Google Earth

Virtuoso Piano Free

iBooks was sort of a given, as it’s the only app in the world that had the benefit of an on-screen alert sent out to just about every iPad owner in the world when it debuted, combined with the whole Kindle vs iPad thing.

It’s a bit surprising to see Pandora that high up there, considering that something that really seals the deal — multitasking support — wasn’t available on the iPad until just weeks ago.

Also interesting: notice that not a single game cracked this list.

Top Paid (iPad):

Pages

GoodReader

Numbers

Angry Birds HD

Keynote

Glee Karaoke

WolframAlpha

Pinball HD

Friendly Plus For Facebook

Star Walk for iPad

Finally, some games. Pinball HD comes in at #7, and, once again, Angry Birds is right up near the top. Apple’s own software makes three appearances (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), while GoodReader’s slot at number 2 indicates that some people are expecting a little more out of the iPad’s document parsing abilities. Gotta love that a paid, third-party Facebook app is in the top 10, given that Facebook made the fairly crazy decision to avoid the platform thus far.

Top Grossing (iPad):

Pages

Numbers

Keynote

LogMeIn Ignition

Scrabble for iPad

Documents To Go

Angry Birds HD

Real Racing HD

Plants vs Zombies HD

Proloquo2Go

Again, Apple dominates. LogMeIn Ignition’s presence is well deserved; even at $19.99, this ultra-simple app for controlling a PC/Mac remotely is one that I feel I’ve gotten my money out of. Angry Birds shows up again. The $180 text-to-speech app (built to help those with difficulty speaking, such as those with autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, or a traumatic brain injury) Proloquo2Go sneaks in at #10 — that price tag may seem steep, but with equivalent dedicated hardware coming in at many thousands of dollars, it’s a steal.

What do you think? Any surprises? Any apps that you expected to make the list that didn’t?